Posts: 3,346
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Joined: May 2012
Staff roles: Balance Dev
(10-28-2024, 08:38 PM)Prysin Wrote: The obvious solution is to nerf the Donau and buff the Bulwark. Thus Bulwark players don't need to care about Rheinland police players, knowing full well that they cannot be stopped. Thus roleplay can be had on their terms, and not on the terms of house laws.
This would have been my response to Kusari's recurring fees had they stayed in place. The minor issues that you're overlooking are:
It is a little absurd for a corporation to deliberately violate House laws to ship some gold to said House, and to then jump a Bustard full of escorts to a Bulwark to blow a Kusari Destroyer or two to bits. I like my roleplay and gameplay to make a modicum of sense, even if this scenario sounds very funny to me.
FR3s exist. This relationship isn't exactly symmetrical. The people who have to pay the money have to do so under threat of getting outlawed by an entire House, which as a corporation (which ships like these are for) isn't exactly desirable.
As for balance testing: the Bulwark and Longhorn were both balance tested against Cruisers in PvP more than any other matchup. They're designed to lose in the long term, but be threatening enough (by virtue of the huge capacity cores they have) to not just be charged mindlessly at and blasted out of the sky in seconds. It's possible that Cruisers' strong shield boosts currently let them close the gap in the most unga bunga of ways again, and we'll address that if needed.
We're hoping to move away from BC Main Batteries as the "Get off me" option and instead give transports their own brand of exceptionally powerful (against warships) turrets with higher efficiencies but lower range. Keeping Cruisers and Gunboats in check then allows us to keep Transports' other stats (shield strength, armor, etc.) lower so that fighters, bombers, freighters and small transports can realistically be used for piracy. Due to the long range of BC Main Batteries we currently would have to make the Longhorn capable of 1v1ing Battleships just so we can keep Cruisers from destroying them in seconds. It's a stopgap of sorts.